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Rigged: The Massachusetts Drug Lab Scandal Podcast

Rigged: The Massachusetts Drug Lab Scandal Podcast

By: Jamie Folk
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On September 28, 2012, Massachusetts state chemist Annie Dookhan was arrested and charged with obstruction of justice and falsification of academic records. Approximately four months later another chemist, Sonja Farak, was arrested for using the drugs she was supposed to be testing and the Massachusetts Drug Lab Scandal was born. Hosts Jamie Folk and Ilyas Rona will be exploring the William H Hinton, UMass Amherst and State Police crime labs associated with this scandal and speak with the lawyers whose clients rights were violated as a result of the fraud committed by the chemists in these labs. Through their investigation of this case, Folk and Rona have found that the crimes of Dookhan and Farak were just the tip of the iceberg and that multiple chemists from three state labs lied on the stand, knowingly sent people to jail for possessing drugs that were not illegal and wanted to help law enforcement send as many people to jail as possible. Jamie Folk is an independent journal who has been investigating this case since Dookhan's arrest was first reported. He has obtained over 70k documents from the state and has interviewed several lawyers, journalists, politicians, law enforcement officials and others connected with the case over the past 7 years. Ilyas Rona is a lawyer who represented a man sent to prison by Dookhan and another Hinton lab chemist for possessing what turned out to be a cashew for two years. He has been investigating the Hinton, Amherst and State Police labs ever since. Season 3 begins the exploration of cases outside of Massachusetts in the hope of shining a light on other drug lab scandals throughout the country.Copyright 2025 Jamie Folk Political Science Politics & Government Science True Crime
Episodes
  • Civil Asset Forfeiture AKA Legal Theft
    Mar 19 2023

    Ilyas and Jamie take a break from the drug lab to do a deep dive into what drives the state to fight their war on drug addicted people. Civil Assist Forfeiture is just a new rendition of the ancient practice of state run overlords using force backed by unfair laws to harass and steal from poor people.

    Ilyas traces the practice back to the Magna Carta but it certainly predates that. Today police use the principal to take money from the people who the arrest for drug use and distribution to take all of their cash, cars and property. This cash is then used to buy things that don't need to be approved by legislative bodies or reported at all. Boston was caught using this money to buy face recognition technology and placing cameras around the city to spy on its citizens.

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    1 hr and 22 mins
  • OIG Criminal Referrals for Multiple Hinton Chemists and Lab Director
    Feb 21 2023

    The Massachusetts Inspector General made criminal referrals for multiple Hinton Lab Chemists, Supervisors and the Lab Director. They did this while never publicly admitting it. They also knowingly lied to the public when they said in their 2014 report on the Hinton Lab that Annie Dookhan was the lone bad actor at the Hinton Lab..

    Jamie, Ilays and Chris examine these newly unearthed criminal referrals from as far back as 2013 and going all the way up to 2015. We also look at evidence uncovered by Jamie that indicates that the Massachusetts State Police Lab also engaged in behavior that the Inspector General thought was egregious enough to refer Hinton Chemists for Criminal Referrals.

    No referrals have been made for any chemist outside of Sonja Farak who did not work in the Hinton Lab in spite of the State Police and Amherst chemists engaging in the same behavior that got Hinton chemists into trouble with the OIG. This is a developing story and we divulge information in this episode that no news organization has yet to uncover.

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    1 hr and 44 mins
  • Criminal Charges Recommending for Chemists Lying about Drug Classifications and Rigged Testing
    Feb 16 2023

    So the Massachusetts Inspector General's Office told all the DAs in the state that they were recommending criminal charges against multiple chemists in the Hinton Lab not just Annie Dookhan. They made these recommendations way back in 2014 and 2015 and the DAs did nothing.

    The Inspector General then knowingly lied to the public and when they told them that Dookhan was the lone back actor at the Hinton Drug Lab in the conclusion of their report. The blatant lying displayed here by the state is truly astounding and there has been zero accountability.

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    1 hr and 20 mins
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